Pages

Monday, September 06, 2010

miscellany

Remember me? I'm the girl that used to blog (regularly) in this space. I'm feeling funky today and I always find it hard to blog when I'm in a mood like this.

However...I've been making things...a hexagon needle book (eeek! i love this!)tutorial here. thank you Angela!hexagon templates printed from here.

I also made a crochet roll for my sister, for her birthday last week.I love this one, too. It came together super quick. The dimensions are my own, made up on the fly.It was inspired by Kathy's colored pencil roll that is in this book, but I didn't bother piecing the background pieces. The quilting design is genius!

I've been reading this book over the weekend. Wow. It's rocking my world a little bit. In a good way. It came recommended by Shelly and Andrea.I'm getting ready for teaching my machine quilting class in November. (Still a few spots left if you are interested. More info here.) Making samples is fun! 4 down and many to go. I thought about doing a quilting stitches quilt along, however I see that Heather beat me to the punch. So I guess that's one thing I can cross off my to do list. :)

Also, I wanted to answer a few questions that came up repeatedly.

Several people wanted to know if I had a pattern for my lunch bag. (see previous post.) I made that up as I went, too. Generally, if I use a tutorial or a pattern for something that I show on my blog, I'll post the link or the source. If there is no info, chances are, I made it up. I'm thinking of making a few more lunch bags and if I do, I'll try to do a quick run down of the steps and share the how to. I did get a chance to test drive my lunch bag last Friday when I went to eat lunch with my boys. I found the dimensions to meet my needs perfectly. No tweaking required. LOVE that.

Several people asked about how I did the quilting on my spiderweb quilt.I added lines to this photo to blatantly show where I quilted. I echoed the lines from the piecing, leaving about a quarter inch from the edge of my walking foot to the seam, so the quilting lines are 1/2" from the seam lines. Plenty of room to avoid those bulky centers. I used warm and white batting, which doesn't require close stitching (10" or less), so it worked perfectly.

And I dreamed about quilting my blue quilt last night. I'm stumped on thread choice, though. That, and I have 101 other projects vying for my attention. I'm sure you know how it goes. :)

I'm currently hosting a free motion quilt along on my blog! We are just about to start quilting the top. It's fun, so many people just need help getting started. That little needle book is so sweet, the little D ring is such a good idea!

A variegated blue thread might be neat for quilting your blue quilt. I used a variegated thread on one of mine once and liked the results. There does tend to be a bit more waste, though if you are as picky as I am about things. LOL :)

I loved the way those quilting lines looked on the back of your spiderweb, so it's cool to see the black lines layed over the front in the photo. Worked great for that quilt! Love your adorable little hexagon needle holder too. I need a needle holder, and bookmarked that tutorial, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Great to see all that's keeping you busy these days!

Hi Amanda Jean, love your little hexie key ring, very clever. I have a question about the spiderweb block. I went to quiltville and looked at those instructions and several other blogs on how they do theirs. But I am a little confused.

When you mark the 1/4" dot and put the line on....do sew ON that line? I am lost on this one. I have made a ton of quilts and really should "know" this, but it's a major blonde thing and I just can't figure this out, help!! I just need to know where to start sewing on this one.

Um, that little needle book, in one of my all-time favorite fabrics, henna garden in pink by Sandi Henderson, is really, really cute. Seems like I just received one of those in the mail. (Thanks, more than I can say.) And something will soon be winging its way back to you too!

Ah Amandajean, I've been away from your blog so long that it's taken me an hour to see your works once again.I stay away because I don't want to get so hiped as I always do when I visit.I'm loving all your recent works, so I'm going to get my mojo working to start getting things done.One thing about the lunch bags that I've done is make side pockets for putting in the little snacks.Love yours too. It's hard to believe that kids are at school all day now. My granddaughter started university...I feel old.

OMG - way back when I quilted - okay 10 years ago or so - I took every single Diane Guadynski class I could take - Trapunto, feather quilting, Texas star quilt, the basket quilt, machine applique - and the list goes on. She is just a talent - and stinkin sweet and gentle, her butternut-ty color choices always impressed me. I am always so excited to "see" her discovered again:) Okay, sorry for the rant...but she is a genious - okay now I am done. Enjoy that book! PS - thanks for your comment over at my blog - I can't wait to find time to baste up my QAL quilt - those little squares made me manic, but I love my finished top!

AJ, just wanted to share my oh-no moment. I know you're a Wisconsin gal like I am, and when I saw you are having a retreat, I thought, hey, that sounds pretty cool. I clicked on the hyperlink, which then lead me to another hyperlink, only to find out that the retreat is in Colorado! Not an easy weekend drive! Ha ha. Anyway, have a great time.

I've seen your quilts, and in this post I've seen your quilting samples and truly like what I see. I would love to attend the "learn to quilt" get a way in Colorado, but is just not feasible as I will be way too pregnant to attend. My real question is, I am making a queen/king size bed quilt (my first of this magnitude) and am still learning how to actually quilt things. Where could I send the pieced top, batting and backing for someone to quilt for me? I would pay of course. Also, I don't think my machine could handle such a large quilt. Do you know of someone I could send my quilt to to be quilted? Thank you for sharing your talents with the world, to inspire us little crafters.